The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-08-22
Ives Assets and Liabilities.

The statement of the assets and liabilities
of Ives g. Co, of New York, which was pub
| lished in our dispatches yesterday, appears
to make very good showing for the insolv
ent firm, but unfortunately it will not bear
close examination. The liabilities are some
thing over S16, 900, and the face value of
the assets only S24 600, 900. 1t is stated,
however, that with few exceptions the secu-
rites which make up the assets, are not
worth anywhere near their face value and,
besides, a very considerable part of them is
in the possession of President Garrett of the
Baltimore and Ohio railroad, who received
them when he gave Ives an option on that
road. The impression appears to be that
when the business of the firm is wound up,
not much more than half of its liabilities
will be liquidated.
1t seems marvellous that a young man, not
more than % years of age. who n few years
ago was q clerk in a book publishing house,
should have been able in SO short time,
without any assistance other than that
which he secured by his own efforts, to col
lect such an enormous amount of assets and
incur such vast liabilities. That Ives has
abundance of brains there can be no doubt.
Had he been successful in his Baltimore and
Ohio deal he would have been called great
financier His schemes failed, and by Wall
street he is now considered to be a trickster
and an adventurer whose proper place is in
the penitent1ary.
There certainly is very little if anything
that is admirable in Ives character. He
began his Wall street career with the inten
ton Of making great fortune without re-
gard to the means to be employed to &C
compish his purpose. Several transactions
in the early part of his career were of
character to bring him into disrepute with
those of the-Wall street mon who pretend
to employ only honest business methods,
but as he seemed to be successful his short
comings were overlooked, and he was per-
mitted to associate Oh terms of familiarity
with men whose business records were, so
far as the world knew, clean.
1t is believed that there are many men in
the great &C Snercial cities, engaged in vast
enterprises, who are not more honest than
Ives is. Now and then the country is
startled by accounts of crooked transactions
involving men who had always enjoyed
unspotted regulations Harper, who wrecked
the Fidelity National Bank at Cincinnati
n few weeks ago, in trying to carry through
a big wheat deal, was thought to be an hon
est man until it was discovered that he had
cleaned out the bank Two of the bonanza
kings, Flood and Mackay tried to corner the
California wheat market few weeks ago,
and it is alleged that they used the deposits
of the Bank of Nevada for that purpose.
1t is also stated that if it had not been for
their ability to obtain ''loans" the chances
were that the bank would have been wrecked,
and thousands of poor people would have
lost every dollar they had. The wheat cor
ner was q failure and, if reports are correct,
the two chief promoters of it lost about
100000.
Society should turn cold shoulder to
men like. Ives, Harper and others. The
only difference between them and such men
as Ferdinand Ward and Banker Fish, who
are now wearing striped suits, is that they
are little more clever in evading the con-
sequences of their misdeeds